Colleges: Gonzaga receives No. 1 ranking for first time

Updated 11:24 pm, Monday, March 4, 2013

SPOKANE, Wash. - The to-do list for the Gonzaga basketball team got shorter Monday: For the first time, the Zags were ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll.

"It's an honor that people would think this highly of all of us in the program," coach Mark Few said in a prepared statement Monday afternoon. "It's great for the program, great for the school, great for the city of Spokane and the region and the entire Northwest."

Gonzaga is the 57th school to be ranked No. 1 since the AP poll began in January 1949. It's the first time a school outside the six major conferences has been No. 1 since Memphis spent five weeks atop the poll in 2008.